Wednesday, May 13, 2009

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

...you can't buy BACK something that you never owned in the first place.

The tone of the article is so supine, so docilely toothless, that it leaves one in slack-jawed amazement that someone so obviously ovine could operate a keyboard with their little cloven hooves.

"When we do this again, we want to make sure we raise more money," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a Parker Center news conference, where the weapons were displayed on tables, blankets and anywhere police could pile them.

"Look at this," Villaraigosa said as he pointed at the stock of a rifle. "It has an NRA sticker on it."

...and then he said "Boo!" and the audience shivered on cue.

Ooh! An NRA sticker right on the gun!

What in the hell is that supposed to mean, Mr. Villaraigosa? What significance does that have in your dim little mind?

Villaraigosa made it sound like the NRA was a criminal gang, like the Crips or the Bloods.

And none of the turned-in guns will be used as evidence of a criminal shooting; this was a "no questions asked" event. Small wonder, when other news reports indicate that CA is so short of funds that there is a huge backlog of forensic examinations (guns, toxicology, DNA, you name it).

This in a state whose legislature is tripping all over itself trying to find expensive new ways to solve gun crimes: laser etching, spent casing samples, smart guns, etc.

The gov't of California obviously has no interest in using any of these proposals to solve crimes, but rather to impede lawful gun ownership.

i had quite a little trove of junkers that i encouraged buyers to trade in to me to avoid the 3-day wait on handgun purchases, and at the last event in nearby lakeland, they were giving $100 wallyworld certificates, maximum three per "customer". by the time my wife, son, and i were done, we had 900 wallybucks that neatly covered three ss 10/22's, a coupla bricks, and a mini shopping spree for wifey.

but it did get nine evil firearms out of the junk box, er, i mean, "off the streets."

i think they've since changed the rules to disallow spending the chits on guns, but they didn't say anything about ammo and gear...:o)

It was one such buyback program that prompted me to pick up a Jennings J22 - even though it was a Jennings, I couldn't abide the thought of it being melted down. It was a functioning firearm (honest!), so I made the guy an offer for it.

Probably more than a Jennings is worth, but it was for a noble purpose - cheating the Mayor of Boston out of one more photo op.

Flash forward a couple of years, and I managed to finagle a trade of that Jennings for a Mosin Nagant M44 rifle, all de-cosmo'd and everything.

"We did that [no ballistics tests] for two reasons," [Deputy Chief Charlie] Beck said. "One, we would be overwhelmed in checking these. And, even if we could, it is more important to have a person linked to a crime than a weapon.